Italian Pellegrini sets 200m freestyle world record

MELBOURNE, Mar 27 (Reuters) Federica Pellegrini of Italy set a world record of one minute 56.47 seconds for 200 metres freestyle in the world swimming championships semi-finals today.

Pellegrini wiped 0.17 seconds off the previous record of 1:56.64 set by Franziska van Almsick of Germany at the 2002 European championships in Berlin.

Reuters DH RK1709